Sometimes a small piece of technology comes along that makes operating your model railroad just a bit easier, or a bit more intuitive. The Wye Track Adapter, from Berrett Hill Trains (http://www.berretthillshop.com/store/products/wye-adapter/) is just such a piece of technology. I recently installed a Wye Track Adapter to control the turnouts of the wye (of course!) located between Telluride and Pandora on the Telluride Branch of my RGS layout.
The concept behind the Wye Track Adapter (WTA) is to use Touch Toggles to select a route through the wye, rather than selecting individual turnouts. Some of my operators have experienced confusion setting the individual turnouts in a wye to the route that they wish to travel, especially if one of the turnouts is in a location where it is difficult to see which way the turnout is thrown.
I have installed the Touch Toggles into a small temporary control panel (as a 'proof-of-concept') mounted on the fascia. The Touch Toggles are mounted such that the toggle itself is located between the turnouts. The red or green indication on the toggle shows whether the turnouts are aligned for the route: if the toggle is green, the two turnouts are aligned to allow train passage along the route. The operator must only touch the toggle for the route desired.
So, how does one install such a beast? Installation is actually simple, but a couple of notes may be helpful to you if you choose to install the WTA.
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| The Wye Track Adapter installed to the benchwork and connected to the two left inputs on the Direct Base. |
The above photo shows the Wye Turnout Adapter plugged into the Direct Base. The following steps should help clarify the installation:
1. Note that the far left output (the blue connector at the top of the Direct Base) is wired to two Tortoise switch machines. These will be thrown simultaneously.
2. Temporarily plug a Touch Toggle into the far left input on the Direct Base. This Toggle will throw the two turnouts for the main route simultaneously.
3. Adjust the wiring to the two Tortoises so that both turnouts are aligned for the main route when the left Touch Toggle is green.
4. Temporarily plug a Touch Toggle into the input next to the far left input. Adjust the wiring such that the turnout is thrown in the proper direction.
5. Disconnect the two Touch Toggles.
6. Plug the WTA into the two inputs.
7. Plug the Touch Toggle corresponding to the default route into Position 1 on the WTA.
8. Plug the Touch Toggle selecting the second route into Position 2 on the WTA.
9. Plug the third Touch Toggle onto Position 3 on the WTA.
10. Note that the third input and output from the left will not be used.
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| Temporary track diagram of the wye located between Telluride and Pandora. The green light indicates the selected route, with both turnouts aligned for this route |
So, you may ask: "Do you recommend the Wye Track Adapter?" Yes, I do. When properly installed, the selection of the route through the wye is intuitive, even to neophyte operators, and the turnouts for the through route are automatically aligned upon powering up the layout. Try it - you'll like it!
